


Slay the Dragon

by Smartasslittlesteve



Category: Original Work
Genre: Fantasy World, Gen, Magic, Nicknames, Quest, Sad Ending, dragon slayer, tagging original works is much harder, unlikely friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-11-05 08:43:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17915576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smartasslittlesteve/pseuds/Smartasslittlesteve
Summary: Sage never wanted this, she went on a quest alone for personal gain. She never wanted anyone to come with her, and she never knew slaying the dragon would have these dire of consequences





	Slay the Dragon

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this like a year ago for English class but dammit I'm proud of it.

     Slay the dragon and ascend to the Order of Saint George, the goal was simple, the path, however, was not. Sage strode into the little town about a day's travel from the kingdom the sun was low in the sky and the residents were just starting to wake up. The quest would be long and tedious, summer months were just beginning and her armour would only get hotter from here on out. Sage thought over her quest for the seemingly hundredth time that day already walking into a small tavern in order to find news about this dragon.

     "Thanks, Heath here's your payment, don't worry I'll keep it on the down low," The tavern master said handing a bag of coins over to a man on the other side of the counter. He had somewhat long black hair and a broad build. Scars and burns on his arms suggested he most likely worked as a blacksmith.

     "Yo, what do either of you know about a dragon around here?" Sage asked walking up to them. The man's face looked confused for a moment before he smiles bright enough to rival the sun.

     "A dragon? Are you on a quest to slay it or something? Man, that is so cool. I think there one around here around this time, big black thing breathes fire the works you know," the grin never faltered as the man animatedly threw his hands around, "If you're going to slay it can I come with I'm really good with combat and stuff plus I've done my fair share of research on the dragon?" The man continued to ramble as Sage pondered the idea. Having another person would be useful, she would have a lookout someone to help with hunting plus he looked like a decent fighter and had a good bit of information on the dragon.

     "Fine" She stated picking at her nails like she had better things to do.

     "Aww, Man, really? Sweet! This is awesome!" He threw his fist into the air in victory.

     “Don’t get too excited now Charcoal, this isn't going to be a fun trip,” Sage glowered before turning to the tavern master, “I need five bottles of water and some dried meat,” she pulled  out a bag of coins and threw a few on the counter before collecting the supplies. “Let’s go you burnt piece of metal!” She shouted at the man while kicking open the door.

     “It’s Heath!”

     “Do I look like I care?”

     “I’m just saying it would make this whole thing easier if we knew each other's names,”

     “You underestimate my insult capabilities,” the two continued to bicker as they left the town.

 

     Two days later the duo strolled into an inn on the outskirts of a little town of Norfolk. The bard in the corner singing a song about some quest Sage couldn’t care less about looked over her face brightening when it fell upon the newcomers. 

     “Sage do you want one or two rooms?” Heath asked from the counter agreeing to pay for this room.

     “Just one save your money,” She yelled back her eyes staying on the crowd gathered in the lobby anticipating some kind of danger.

     “It should be a few more days walk until we get to the clearing nearby that the dragon goes by a bunch,” Heath bounded over to her room key in hand, the ever-present thousand-watt smile on his face.

     “Did I hear you say dragon?” The bard asked appearing beside Sage in an instant.

     “Maybe he did what's it to you?” She snapped glowing at the strawberry blonde.

     “Well it's simply being the person who documents this adventure dragon slaying, am I right? Would give me so much popularity my salary would go up, I wouldn't have to keep working low paying gigs in Inns and stuff I could make a name for myself! Oh, I’m Rune by the way!” She explained her honey eyes alight with excitement.

     “If you really want to you can follow us around but you have to pay for yourself, I’m not paying for a third mouth to feed,” Sage picked up her bag following Heath up to their room while he chatted animatedly with Rune the two already becoming fast friends.

 

     Their final town stop before living solely off the wilderness brought with two new party members. The band of three had stopped in at a small house with ‘ _ Healer’ _ written on a sign out front. Inside the idiots had to spill all about their travels and immediately offered the mage and archer living there to join them. “You two better not be incompetent,” Sage grumbled analyzing the two in front of her. 

     “Oh we won't trust me, Chris over here can shoot a squirrel from a hundred meters away! How crazy is that?” The mage exclaimed her golden blonde hair swaying as she gestured.

     “It’s not nearly as impressive as you make it out to be Astra, plus I can shoot from farther than that,” The raven-haired boy corrected leaning against the wall. 

     “Oh whatever, plus I’ve just had a breakthrough in combining electric and arcane magic, trust me we can hold our own,” Astra's eyes gleamed with a mad sparkle as she rattled on about her magic.

     “Tch whatever just like I told Chickadee, you're paying and hunting for yourselves,” Sage scoffed.

     “Its Rune,” 

     “Get your stuff together were leaving by mid-morning,” Sage ignored the bard who didn’t look at all deterred from trying to make friends with Sage as she had before.

 

     “This is the clearing I had told you guys about earlier the dragon comes by here all the time,” Heath exclaimed walking into a plain looking clearing that Sage would have overlooked if Heath hadn't been there. 

     “Woah Hearth you know so much that so cool,” Rune practically screamed.

     “Heh it's not really that impressive,” He replied.

     “So how are we going to slay this thing oh Heath our lord and saviour?” Astra asked while bowing down.

     “Pretty much we're just going to put all our shiny stuff outside because dragons love shiny things, and just wait for it to show up,”

     “Can’t you idiots think of a faster plan?” Sage asked pulling her armour off.

     “Trust me, man, this is a fast plan it’ll be here in like two days tops,” Heath reassured her while the five got to work on setting up their two tents.

     “So Heath huh?” Rune asked Sage as the five had retired for the night girls in one tent boys in the other.

     “What?” the brunette sat up from her bedroll to get a closer look at the strawberry blonde.

     “You and Heath seem to be pretty close, any thoughts on making it more, intimate?” the bard raised her eyebrows as she asked.

     “No he is helping me with my quest and then we are going our separate ways,” the blush quickly spreading over her cheeks did nothing to help get Rune off her back.

     “Awww you’re blushing you do like him,” 

     “I couldn’t care less about Charcoal,”

     “Are you sure,”

     “Shut up Chickadee,”

     “See you have nicknames you do love us,”

     “I’d sell the lot of you to Satan for one corn chip,” Rune just laughed, ignoring Sage's initial intent.

     “But seriously you two would be cute together, just think on it,” With that the bard rolled over pestering Astra about her love life, leaving Sage to just stare at the patterns of mid-day light seeping in through the tent walls.

 

     That night the dragon finally found them.

     The party was first alerted by a loud flapping of wings sending an unnatural burst of air in their direction. The beast was an inky black blending in with the night sky above. It was species native to the European area body nearly the size of a large tavern with wings nearly twice the length. A tower of fire shot out from the dragon's mouth illuminating its glossy black scales and the blood staining its muzzle.

     Astra was the first to react sending a purple ball of energy with electricity dancing around it in the direction of the dragon, its black colour making it hard to aim and causing her to miss her mark.

     Sage was second grabbing a lance off the ground but the dragon was too high up for her to dream of hitting her mark.

     “Chris can you shoot that far ‽” Sage yelled

     “Yeah it doesn’t look out of range,” He quickly drew his bow, firing upon the dragon and watching as arrow after arrow ricocheted off of the beast.

     “It’s no use!” Rune yelled as the dragon grew farther and farther away, flying into the distance.

 

     The four were sat around a small fire discussing in hushed voiced about the recent encounter with the dragon when Heath arrived. He held up the five rabbits he had gotten for that night’s dinner, bringing attention to the blood on his hands and face.

     “Heath...what happened to you?” Chris asked eyeing the blood wearily.

     “Wha- oh this,” He gestured to his face, “I was gutting them so that we could cook ‘em as soon as I got back and a few times I hit a vein or something and it squirted blood at me,” he explained while handing Rune the game, before he went to go clean his face.

 

     “Sparky, did you eat all of the food‽” Sage yelled at the blonde, looking up from her bag, getting ready for bed.

     “Sorry, I was hungry,” the mage tossed an orb of arcane magic in her hand as she spoke.

     “Looks like we're going hunting, Charcoal, Target Practice, we’re going hunting because  _ someone _ ate all of our food,” Sage announced before turning on her heel and walking out into the dawn.

     “Cool!” Heath shouted following her out the door, Chris right behind him.

 

     The Growl was the first indication that something was wrong. The trio had already caught a few rabbits and squirrels and had started making their way back through the forest when they heard it.

     “Shut up,” Sage commanded quickly listening for another sound.

     “Five o'clock right behind you Chris, it's probably about twenty meters back, strong scent of fresh blood,” Heath whispered waiting for the canine to show itself.

     Sage could feel her heart beating in her throat as she slowly turned meeting the brown eyes of the timber wolf standing before them, her hand barely made it halfway to her sword when it pounced biting her arm before being ripped off by Heath, his unnaturally sharp teeth looked terrifying in the dawn light. His dark eyes filled with bloodlust as he held the creature by the scruff of its neck. He ripped its throat out with his other hand. Blood splattered him as he cast the carcass aside before he blinked and pulled that thousand-watt smile again his demeanour back to normal.

     “Sorry about that it was a little gorier than I would have liked but what can you do?” He shrugged before looking to Sage, “Aww crap that's a pretty bad bite, here, let's just use this to stop the bleeding,” He spoke as he pulled off his shirt and tied it around Sage bicep where she had been bitten.

     Sage quickly looked away biting her lip to fight back a blush. This was all thanks to that idiot Chickadee, if she hadn’t said anything then Sage wouldn’t be having this..this..weird feeling. 

     “It’s fine let’s just get back to camp and get to sleep already,"

     "No way Sage you need to get that cleaned," Chris objected

     "Whatever,"

     The trio made their way back to the camp with their game Astra and Rune immediately fretting over them as they entered the clearing.

     "Oh, my gods what happened to you guys?" Rune fretted her eyebrows scrunching together

     "Just a wolf, Heath took it down though," Chris simplified and grabbed the game from the other two "anyways I'll go gut these while you two wash up and what not,"

     "Sounds good," Heath replied leading Sage over to the campfire site and grabbing a container of water, "Rune can you go refill these in the river were starting to run low on water?" He asked motioning to their other containers and bottles while cleaning off his hands.

     "Sure thing!"

     "I don’t need your help," Sage grumbled as Heath started to clean her wounds.

     "Huh, I know that I also know that it would be easier if I did it though,"

     "Tch, what was that earlier?"

     "What was what," He scrunched his eyebrows together.

     "You ripped a wolf throat out with your bare hands,"

     "Oh that," He exclaimed laughing, "Hm I'm not really sure I just didn’t want it to hurt my friends so I killed it, I don’t really know how else to explain," He shrugged.

     "Tch idiot," Sage rolled her eyes at the boisterous laugh that her insult earned.

     "Anyways you're all cleaned up, I'mma tie it up to help stop stuff from getting into the wound," He stated as he tied a piece of cloth around the wound, "Alrighty I'll go help out C hris," He announced walking off.

     Half an hour later the group had nearly forgotten about the attack and were happily going to bed ready to rise and fight the dragon once the sun went down. 

     "Heath, how can you be sure it'll come back tonight?" Astra asked. 

     "Because it didn’t get it's treasure yesterday so it'll be back again," He explained, "I'll go into the forest look around that area on the perimeters, Chris, there is a tree right behind the tents that'll give you a great vantage point, Rune, take this," He picked up a sword and tossed it to her, "Go against the scales if it gets close enough or else your attacks will bounce right off, Astra you take the left side across from Chris there's another tree around there if you want to be higher and Sage, you take the middle, it has to be you that kills the dragon," Heath looked around at everyone making sure they understood before giving a slight nod, his eyes looked full of grief and his smile looked strained. Sage hated seeing him this way and hated tha t she cared, after tonight she would never see him again so why care. 

     Just as predicted after about an hour the dragon showed again. The gales from its inky black wings alerted the party of its presence long before their eyes did. A tower of fire lit up the sky around them as the dragon flew overhead. The beast passed the clearing before circling around diving toward the pile they had made in the centre, letting out a deafening roar as one of Astra's attacks hit it in the eye. 

     "Bullseye!" She yelled pumping a fist in the air before summoning another attack her cloak whipping around in the unnatural winds. 

     The dragon immediately pulled up after the hit allowing Chris to plant an arrow in its sternum. Fire licked at the trees and sky as the dragon roared pulling itself into a steep incline, Rune cutting the tip of its tail off. 

     It was strange after all of the attacks that had landed injuring the dragon it still made no effort to burn its attackers, Sage thought as she threw her lance, and watched as it ripped a hole in the fine leather of the dragon's skin, making it pitch left and fall into the forest.  

     The party ran after the sound of falling trees, weapons at the ready as they charged.  

     The creature took hit after hit as it could no longer fly nor use its massive size as a defence, leaving it immobile and defenceless. It was blinded in both eyes as Astra threw another attack, the beast thrashed around, whipping its head back and forth in panic as arrows embedded themselves into its flanks, stamping its feet as Rune cut into its legs over and over. 

     Sage laughed as she dove under the creature, jamming her sword up to the hilt into its chest right about where the heart would be and sliding out under its head as it fell still falling onto its side. 

     Jubilant cheering rang out through the forest as the party celebrated, Rune ran up and hugged Sage, and whispered in her ear that 'those idiots finally got together' tilting her head in the direction of the mage and archer. 

     Sage turned to find where Heath was to bring him into the festivities when she noticed the dragon. Its wings and tail were disappearing its muzzle shrinking, and arms and legs changing shape. Astra let out a scream as they stared at the form, now fully changed. They just stood there staring as it looked back before Sage finally broke from the spell. 

     "No," She checked out her breath coming in sobs as tears started to run down her face and she looked at what was previously the dragon. 

     "Sorry, but this was the only way," Heath replied, the light dying from his eyes. 


End file.
